By Krystal Hu and Greg Roumeliotis

March 31 (Reuters) - Standard General, the hedge fund battling for board seats at Tegna Inc, called on the U.S. regional TV station operator on Tuesday to open its books to two bidders still interested in acquiring the company amid the coronavirus crisis.

Tegna said on Sunday that turbulent market conditions, driven by the coronavirus pandemic, had weighed on its negotiations with potential acquirers. It said two remaining bidders had not signed confidentiality agreements to enable due diligence, and had not delivered any information on financing sources.

These two bidders are media investor Byron Allen and a consortium led by private investment firm Najafi Companies and Trinity Broadcasting Networkwhich. Each have made offers valuing Tegna at $8.5 billion, including debt.

"The two remaining bidders for Tegna own other broadcasting assets, so there could be various synergies. Given that we don't know what the synergies are, you have to give people a chance to figure them out," Standard General founding parner Soohyung Kim said in an interview.

"If you create arbitrary barriers, you have the result we saw on Sunday. This is a question of good faith and credibility on the part of Tegna," Kim added.

Tegna did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A source close to Tegna said that two bidders were welcome to sign confidentiality agreements to carry out due diligence on the company. Allen and Najafi did not respond to requests for comment.

Tegna, a spinoff of Gannett Co Inc's broadcasting and digital arm, runs 62 television stations in 51 U.S. markets, and reaches 39% of television households in the United States.

Byron Allen's Allen Media group so far owns 15 stations in smaller U.S. markets, while TBN runs on 32 networks in more than 175 countries.

U.S. regional TV station operator Gray Television Inc and private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc dropped out of the running for Tegna earlier this month, as their appetite for a deal soured amid the coronavirus-induced market downturn.

While the regional TV sector is benefiting from increased political advertising this year ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November, TV advertising budgets have been in decline as media consumption shifts to the internet and online streaming. The decline has accelerated as the coronavirus outbreak weighs on consumer spending.

Standard General is asking Tegna's shareholders to elect its four nominees, including Kim himself, as directors on the company's board during annual the shareholder meeting on April 30. (Reporting by Krystal Hu and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)